Gender-based Violence

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 | 4PM EAT

We invite you to join the conversation about gender and cash transfers in humanitarian settings. Together, we’ll explore the relationship between gender impacts and cash programming and if and how cash programs can address GBV.

FIELD-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION URGENTLY REQUIRED

The Call to Action on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Emergencies, a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in 2013 by the governments of the United Kingdom and Sweden, aims to fundamentally transform the way gender-based violence (GBV) is addressed in emergencies, so that every humanitarian response provides safe and comprehensive services for those affected by GBV and mitigates GBV risk from the earliest phases of a crisis.

Throughout 2016, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) partnered with local organizations in urban humanitarian settings, for the purpose of piloting GBV activities that would be at once innovative, community-driven, and responsive to evidence on local GBV risks and effective risk mitigation strategies. Four pilots were undertaken, in Delhi, India; Beirut, Lebanon; Santo Domingo, Ecuador; and Kampala, Uganda. Each Urban GBV Case Study presents an example of an urban-specific GBV risk prevention and/or response strategy. Each illustrates, in a different way, the untapped potential that exists within both refugee communities and host-communities, for mitigating urban refugees’ immediate and long-term GBV risks.

This Guidance Note sets forth concrete actions for working with refugees engaging in sex work. The Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) developed this Guidance Note in partnership with the Organization for Gender Empowerment and Rights Advocacy (OGERA), to raise awareness and initiate a conversation about how we ensure the protection of and access to vital services for refugees engaged in sex work. A rights-based approach to working with this population calls for providing them with a range of information, services, and support options, while reducing the stigma and discrimination they encounter.

The closure of the Balkans route and the subsequent European Union-Turkey agreement to reduce the flow of refugees into Europe is nothing short of a protection and legal disaster for refugees, particularly women and girls.

An increasing majority of refugees live in cities and they face gender-based violence risks as a result of unmet needs and intersecting oppressions based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and disability among others. This new reality necessitates a monumental shift in humanitarian response.

In times of war and its aftermath, legal structures that traditionally protect women and children, including formal and informal justice systems and respect for the rule of law, break down leaving them vulnerable to abuse including but not limited to rape, early and forced marriage and domestic violence. The guide summarizes an assessment of War Child Canada’s three-pronged legal protection model was implemented with South Sudanese refugees in Northern Uganda and uses it to identify the most important lessons for ensuring legal protection mechanisms are in place at the onset of an emergency.

Identifying Risk Factors for Urban Refugees

In cities, refugees face especially high levels of violence because displacement, language, skin color, and other intersecting factors. Certain subgroups are at increased risk because of their work, age, disability or gender or sexual identity. Urban refugees are targeted because perpetrators assume, often correctly, that refugees are unable or unwilling to seek police protection.

This tool contains essential urban risk questions that are intended to supplement whatever GBV risk assessment tools are currently being used by humanitarian practitioners in urban areas.

A Toolkit for Child Protection Actors

A toolkit to develop staff capacity for disability inclusion, to identify gender-based violence needs among children and youth with disabilities, and to involve these young people in planning and implementing activities.